The present disclosure relates to a sheet feeder configured to feed a sheet to an image forming apparatus or the like and an image forming apparatus including the sheet feeder.
An image forming apparatus, such as a multifunction peripheral or a printer, is configured such that a regular size sheet is fed from a sheet feeding cartridge and a non-regular size sheet, such as a card or an elongated sheet, is fed from a manual bypass tray.
The manual bypass tray is provided with a pair of cursors which synchronously slide close to or spaced from each other about a center of a width direction of the sheet, and by the pair of cursors, the sheet is aligned with the center of the width direction to correct skew of the sheet.
However, in a case where an elongated sheet (1,200 mm in length, for example) used for a banner or the like is fed from the manual bypass tray, if a leading end of the sheet may skew, a degree of skew increases toward a rear end of the sheet due to a self-weight or the like of a portion which is not loaded on the manual bypass tray.
FIG. 8 shows an example of a sheet feeding state in a case where the degree of skew increases. FIG. 8 is a view showing the manual bypass tray viewed in a sheet feeding direction. In a case where a sheet feeding is normally carried out, a sheet S (indicated by the solid line of FIG. 8) is aligned with the center of the width direction by a pair of cursors 101F, 101R on a tray 100. On the other hand, when an elongated sheet S1 (indicated by double-dotted chain line of FIG. 8) is fed obliquely to a normal conveying direction, the elongated sheet S1 may run on the front side cursor 101F. In such a case, the skew correction effect exerted by the pair of cursors 101F, 101R is not obtained and, therefore, the elongated sheet S1 is fed with the skew. As a result, a wrinkle may occur on the elongated sheet S1 or a side edge of the elongated sheet S1 may be damaged.
There is a sheet feeder in which a sheet receiving member to roll-bend and support an elongated sheet protruded from the manual bypass tray is removably provided at the manual bypass tray. Also, there is a sheet feeder configured such that a respective one of a pair of cursors is formed with fold parts bent on the sheet side (inside) to force a portion of the sheet out of the conveying path into the conveying path.
However, in the sheet feeder in which the sheet receiving member is provided, there is a need to mount the sheet receiving member every time the elongate sheet is fed or there is a need to secure a storage place for the sheet receiving member and thus there is a problem that workability of sheet feeding work is poor. Also, in the sheet feeder in which the fold part is formed at the respective cursor, as shown in FIG. 8, in a case where a degree of skew is great and the sheet runs over the cursor, a sufficient advantageous effect may not be attained.